And You Don't Know Why, But You're Dying To Try
by foobar137
Summary: Perry is home alone with Phineas and Isabella, and they're trying to find out where he goes every day. Perhaps he can distract them with a little romance? Teenage Phinbella one-shot. Trope bingo: matchmaker


**So HalyPooH over on DeviantArt made a fabulous drawing of Ferb and Vanessa in the snow for me (link in my profile), and in thanks, I offered to write a story based on a prompt she gave me. The prompt was: (paraphrased) Perry is home alone with Phineas and Isabella, and tries to get them to kiss, failing several times before he succeeds.**

**Timeline: summer before sophomore year. Phineas and Isabella are both fifteen.**

**Trope bingo: matchmaker**

* * *

"Phineas, would you mind if Isabella came over tonight while your father and I are out to dinner with Candace and the Johnsons? Vivian has a date tonight, so Isabella would just be home alone otherwise. I'll leave some money for you two to order pizza," Linda asked, putting her earrings in.

"No, of course that's not a problem, Mom. I'd love to have Isabella over. You're okay leaving the two of us alone?"

Linda paused, looking at her son. "Is there a reason I shouldn't? Did you two finally start dating when I wasn't looking?"

"No, no, not at all, just...never mind. Have a good time with the Johnsons, and good luck working out the wedding details."

* * *

Perry landed his hang glider, folded it up, and stashed it behind a bush. Today's fight against Dr. Doofenshmirtz had been harder than most, and he'd taken a few more hits than usual, but he'd be fine in the morning; one of the perks of the mental and physical enhancements the OWCA had given him was faster healing.

He'd seen the boys' parents leaving as he'd been approaching home, and now saw that Isabella was coming across the street to visit. With Candace living elsewhere, and Ferb off at summer camp...that meant Phineas and Isabella would be alone. Perry smiled at the thought; he liked Isabella, and was pretty sure that Phineas _liked_ her. Spending time with her always made Phineas happy, and that was a good thing in Perry's book.

He dropped to all fours as Isabella approached the door, waddling up behind her as she knocked. Phineas opened the door and welcomed Isabella, then saw him and said, "Oh, there you are, Perry. Hey, you look like you've got a cut on your head there."

Isabella turned and picked the platypus up, saying, "Yeah, you do. Let's go see what we can do to treat that." She carried him inside, where Phineas led her upstairs to the bathroom.

"Here, let's clean that cut up," the red-haired boy said, turning on the water in the tub. "And we can give you a nice warm bath while we're at it. You semi-aquatic mammals always love your baths."

Perry relaxed in Isabella's grip as Phineas got the bath ready. A warm bath and attention from Phineas and Isabella made this sound like a very pleasant night. Isabella lowered him into the warm water, and Phineas leaned over to wash the cut, bumping his hip into Isabella by accident; Isabella smiled and bumped him back with her hip, causing Phineas to laugh. Phineas flicked a little water at Isabella, who giggled and lightly splashed him back. Perry sighed happily and sank into the water.

"I wonder where he gets these cuts from? This isn't the first time he's come back from...wherever he goes...with scrapes like this," Isabella said.

Phineas thought for a second, and smiled. "Isabella, I know what we're going to do tonight. We can build a time-tracker to figure out where he went today! After we give him his bath."

Perry froze. _If they figure that out...my secret will be revealed. I need to stop them somehow._ He looked around desperately.

_If I get them too distracted with each other, they'll never finish building it._ He tried to think what he knew of human mating rituals, and looked at the situation; both of them were bent over the tub. _Maybe if I get Isabella wet, so her clothes cling a bit..._

That was simple enough. He slid along the tub toward Phineas; Isabella followed, as he'd hoped, leaning further over the water. Then he slapped down his beaver tail, spraying water up and soaking her white T-shirt.

"Ah! Perry!" Isabella shouted, ducking back. Phineas looked over at her, his eyes dropping down and getting wide, then quickly looked away, back at Perry.

"That wasn't nice, Perry. Here, let's get you out of there." The boy lifted the platypus out of the tub, setting him on a blanket. Isabella sat back on her heels, her arms crossed across her chest, as Phineas dried Perry off.

"I can loan you a shirt while yours dries if you'd like," Phineas said, carefully looking at Isabella's face.

They let Perry loose to roam, and Phineas got a spare shirt for Isabella, which she changed into in the bathroom while Phineas ordered pizza. Her own shirt got hung up to dry.

"Okay, while we wait for the pizza, let's get to building," Phineas said, and the two took up residence at the kitchen table with a pile of parts.

_That didn't work_, Perry thought. _What else can I do to stir romantic feelings?_

_Ah! Music might help._

Fortunately, the boys had computerized the home audio system a while back, so while Phineas and Isabella were in the kitchen, Perry was able to flip through the track list for something appropriate.

_Here we go. The Little Mermaid soundtrack._

The song he was looking for started up.

**There, you see her...sitting there across the way.**

**She don't got a lot to say, but there's something about her.**

**And you don't know why, but you're dying to try, you wanna...kiss the girl.**

Perry looked into the kitchen. The two teens were sitting close to each other, their arms brushing against each other as they worked together. Shy smiles flashed back and forth between them, but there didn't seem to be any kissing going on, and it wasn't slowing down their work. The room was darkening as night fell; Phineas reached over and turned on a light. The doorbell rang; Phineas answered it, returning with pizza.

_Hrmph. Time for more drastic measures._

Perry snuck around the house, hiding flashlights and removing batteries from them. He placed candles where the pair would find them easily, then climbed up to the roof. From there, he could see the transformer on the electric pole outside the house. He pulled a small remote out of a hidden pocket, pointed it at the transformer, and hit the button; there was a crackling noise, and the block went dark.

Perry slipped back downstairs, and found that Phineas and Isabella were now enjoying a romantic dinner together by candlelight. They were sitting next to each other, brushing up against each other a bit more, but still no kissing. Phineas reached over and took Isabella's hand, squeezing it lightly, before letting go and picking up his pizza again. Isabella blushed slightly in the dim candlelight, and whispered something in Phineas's ear. He laughed and gave her a sly smile.

Perry stared at them, trying to figure out what else he could do here. The music had turned off when the power went out, but as he watched, they finished eating. They were spending more time looking at each other, their conversation tapering out as their gazes locked in the flickering light. He sat back, relaxing; his work here was done.

With several loud beeps from assorted electronic devices, the power came back on; Phineas and Isabella started, blinking in the suddenly-bright light, and gave each other embarrassed smiles. Perry peeked out a window, and saw a truck from Danville Light and Power just pulling away.

"I think my shirt's probably dry by now," Isabella said, flushed, "so I'll go put it back on before your parents get home. I don't think they'd let us hear the end of it if they came home to find me wearing your clothes."

"Good idea," Phineas said, his own cheeks quite pink.

Isabella wandered upstairs toward the bathroom as Phineas put the leftover pizza in the refrigerator. Perry desperately pondered as Isabella returned, dressed in her white shirt again.

_Okay, they're getting close to being done with their project, I think. What else can I do to stop them?_

_Maybe I need more serious music._

He went back to the music selector, and flipped over to Phineas's parents' collection. _Here we go. If this doesn't work, I don't know what will._ He selected a song, and the sound of Barry White filled the room.

Perry peeked back into the kitchen. The two teens were just putting the finishing touches on the time-tracker, and there was basically no space between them. Phineas was mouthing the words to the song - "Can't get enough of your love, babe..." - causing Isabella to giggle.

"Finished!" Phineas said triumphantly. "Come here, Perry. Let's see what you got up to today."

Perry's mind raced as Phineas picked him up and placed him on the counter, next to the time-tracker. _How do I stop this now?_

"I bet you're excited to show us what you did today," Isabella said with a smile.

_Yes! That's it! I'm excited!_ Perry wagged his tail enthusiastically, knocking the time-tracker off the counter. It fell onto the kitchen floor, smashing itself to bits.

"Oh no!" Isabella said as Phineas gasped. Then, suddenly, Phineas started laughing.

"What?" Isabella asked.

"I guess there are things we just aren't meant to know, Isabella. Come on, let's clean up the mess."

Perry exhaled with relief and hopped off the counter as the teens swept up the remains of the time-tracker. _Phineas, you're on your own. I give up on trying to get you two together_, he thought.

Once the mess was cleaned up, Phineas and Isabella sat together on the couch. Perry noticed there still wasn't a lot of space between them, and the shy smiles were flashing back and forth between them again.

"I'm sorry we weren't able to find out what Perry does," Isabella said.

"That's okay. I had fun spending time with you tonight."

Isabella's eyes sparkled as she looked at the red-haired boy. "Really?" she asked.

"Really. You're very special to me," he said, shifting just slightly closer to her.

Isabella shifted over as well, and what little space had been between them was now gone. "How special?" she whispered.

Phineas's hand brushed Isabella's cheek as their lips met in a tender kiss. Isabella softly whimpered as the kiss deepened. Their arms slid around each other; Phineas leaned back on the couch, gently pulling Isabella over on top of himself.

Perry smacked himself in the forehead.


End file.
